Why down on all the characters?

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 179336

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "a_svirn" <a_svirn at ...> wrote:
>
> Magpie:
> Were the characters that much more well-loved pre-DH? Because I've
> always heard people saying they dislike aspects of the characters. 
It
> seems like the difference now, if anything, is maybe that now people
> know this is how they characters are going to stay and what they
> ultimately mean. They might have been expecting more of a 
turnaround.
> 
> a_svirn:
> Personally, I think it is a false problem. I, for one, do not crack 
> down on the *characters*. It is the *books* I feel dissatisfied 
with, 
> or, rather, the book – DH.  Some of my favourite books are full of 
> characters I detest, or dislike, or feel indifferent towards, and I 
> still enjoy them none the less. What I find objectionable in DH is 
a) 
> a crudely cobbled up plot and b) highly questionable morality which 
> we are supposed to accept as "the epitome of goodness" almost Good 
> Tidings, in fact. 

Magpie:
That's a much better description of what I think is going on--I think 
you're right in calling it a false problem. Liking or disliking 
characters isn't even the same thing as having a problem with them. 
Like you describe with Dumbledore, a person can think he's 
problematic given what he's supposed to be without feeling strongly 
about him one way or another. To me it just so happens that there's a 
lot of things I had problems with in DH that I actually want to 
discuss--the same things you mention here. There have always been 
people who hated one character or another, sometimes while they 
really loved other characters. That's really a different issue than 
having a problem with DH or the series as a whole. One of the changes 
I have post-DH is I think of the characters less as characters and 
more as fictional constructs. I no longer like or dislike them with 
much intensity, because they don't seem as real to me now for 
whatever reason.

-m